Hell Bent
By Leigh Bardugo
Flatiron Books 2023

Three years after the release of Ninth House, Alex Stern is back in Hell Bent the second book in the “Alex Stern” series by Leigh Bardugo.

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is not your typical Yale University student. She doesn’t come from money. She’s not a legacy admission. She’s not particularly gifted academically. But she does have one thing nobody else has: the ability to see ghosts. This ability brings her to the attention of an exclusive secret society on campus: Lethe. Lethe exists to oversee the other secret societies who use supernatural rituals to secure and maintain power for the rich and well-connected, to let “the people with everything take a little more,” and they are in need of Alex’s particular set of skills. After the events of Ninth House left her mentor Darlington trapped in Hell, Alex is determined to use all the resources of Lethe to get him back.

Hell Bent hits the ground running from the first chapter. But for readers of the previous installment, this book is going to seem rather familiar. Super-secret magical rituals to oversee? Check. An on-campus murder mystery to solve? Check. Ill-advised trips to Hell and back? Check. The reappearance of someone shady and abusive from Alex’s past? Check. There’s not much new here. Even so, the pacing is brisk and reflects the urgency of the characters’ mission.

Unfortunately, the secondary plotlines leave something to be desired. The on-campus murder mystery feels particularly underdeveloped. In part this is because the characters have more pressing things to deal with, so they don’t spend a lot of time dealing directly with the murder investigation. But in that case, why include this plot to begin with? Is this a deliberate mirroring of the content of the first book? If so, to what end? The answers aren’t clear. As the narrative begins to wrap up what does become clear is that the conclusion to some of the plotlines is awfully convenient. In the end, though the main plot—the heist to steal Darlington’s soul back from Hell—is well-developed, some of the secondary plots end up feeling forced, rushed, and unsatisfying.

Perhaps due to the plot-focused nature of the book, Hell Bent is not overly concerned with character development. But it is there, sort of, if you look. One of Alex’s strengths in the first book is her outsider status, but that can hardly be said of her in this book. At least not in the same way. Though she does not come from the same socio-economic background as her peers, she’s part of this world now in a way that she just wasn’t in the first book. Heck, she’s even doing the homework this time. So her status as an outsider has to come from somewhere else: her Lethe membership. This allows Alex to be a normal part of Yale; she’s got roommates and demanding classes, even a Halloween party to attend. Yet she remains separate from the normal Yale experience as she spends her Thursday nights overseeing ghastly rituals involving corpses “skittering over [the floor] like a planchet,” spelling out messages. In a way, Alex is still embodying the same outsider status she was in Ninth House.

Alex is abrasive. She’s unrelenting. She steadfastly refuses to grow in any way, shape, or form until forced to do so. On the one hand this is frustrating to read. On the other hand, Alex is only nineteen or twenty years old; who among us was not at least a little annoying at that age? Her connection to Eitan is a weight dragging her down and preventing any meaningful growth because she cannot leave her old life behind as long as she allows Eitan to occupy any space in it. Though, that is the point. And in the end, Alex does seem to arrive at a very important, impactful moment of personal growth, though it remains to be seen how that will be reflected in her character in the yet-to-be-announced third book.

And what of the supporting characters? Alex’s friends descend into the underworld with her, and you’d expect that to change them in huge, meaningful ways. And it does, but again, you have to really look for the moments of character development in the midst of all the action. This is a bit disappointing only because the potential for conflict and growth after such an intense experience is so great.

Hell Bent is at its core a heist story with elements of dark academia and the supernatural, and it’s a real mixed bag. It does some things well and some things less well. But ultimately it does what you want from the middle book in a series: it sets up the finale. Let’s hope Leigh Bardugo sticks the landing.

Amberlee Venters is a freelance editor and writer living in Northern California.